Search Results for “Intergraph” – GISCafe Voicehttps://www10.giscafe.com/blogs/gissusan
Just another GIS Blogs weblogFri, 16 Mar 2018 15:23:55 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.79101652From the Highest Mountaintop to the Arabian Desert with Geospatialhttps://www10.giscafe.com/blogs/gissusan/2017/10/26/from-the-highest-mountaintop-to-the-arabian-desert-with-geospatial/
https://www10.giscafe.com/blogs/gissusan/2017/10/26/from-the-highest-mountaintop-to-the-arabian-desert-with-geospatial/#respondThu, 26 Oct 2017 16:32:51 +0000https://www10.giscafe.com/blogs/gissusan/?p=5181While a large percentage of the civilized world has been mapped, the world’s mountains have not been among those areas to be mapped as they most often located in remote landscapes. Now available from the USGS is a new web based browsing tool that gives users the most detailed view yet of the world’s mountains, that can be viewed on a cellphone or desktop computer.

An example display from the Global Mountain Explorer tool showing a map of mountains on top of a satellite image background. (Public domain.)

The Global Mountain Explorer (GME) will be of interest to many: hikers, scientists, resource managers and policy makers – anyone seeking information that is often sparse in these prominent yet often understudied landscapes. Mountains occupy anywhere from 12 to 31 percent of the land surface of the Earth, according to the press materials, but despite their importance, surprisingly few attempts have been made to scientifically define and map these regions worldwide with detail.

Anyone with access to the internet can explore where mountains are, their height, range, and whether they are snow-covered or not.

USGS ecosystems geographer Roger Sayre, who led the project, said, “Mountain Explorer users can visualize and compare in one place and for the first time the three major global mountain maps that have been produced.”

Now the details of mountains can be enjoyed with Mountain Explorer. We are dependent on mountains for water, timber, mineral resources, and food, fiber and fuel products. Wildlife make their homes in mountainous areas. With Mountain Explorer perhaps we will have the ability to track the natural hazards prevalent in mountains.

To use it, users can select an area by zooming in or by typing a place name like Mount Everest to view its elevation and type. They can also select from a number of backdrops — such as satellite images, topographic maps or political boundary maps — on which to display the different types of mountain classes. A tutorial showing the full features for the Global Map Explorer is available here.

The event will include government, industry and academia speakers discussing issues and initiatives related to the roles of artificial intelligence, cognitive computing, deep learning and machine learning in geospatial intelligence.

911 for Incident Management in Saudi Arabia

If you thought that 911 was an emergency number reserved for U.S. emergency response, it appears to have worldwide significance, or at least is significant in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Hexagon Safety & Infrastructure’s Intergraph® Computer-Aided Dispatch (I/CAD) solution was deployed by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Ministry of Interior to ensure the safety of pilgrims and residents during the Hajj and Umrah seasons of 2016 and 2017.

The incident management system helps the ministry’s public safety and security agencies manage emergency calls for service using a single emergency number (911).

According to company materials, to improve security and safety for the citizens of Saudi Arabia, the ministry began working in 2015 to implement the Unified Security Operations Center (911) in Makkah, the first province-wide emergency call taking and dispatching system. To support this project, the ministry needed a scalable and reliable incident management system — one that was already proven in the field by many agencies and users.

The ministry selected Hexagon’s I/CAD suite, and the system was put into operation in the summer of 2016. The solution centralized the operation of more than 40 operation centers across the Makkah province into the Unified Security Operations Center (911), thus providing a comprehensive and centralized response system for the entire province, including the cities of Holy Makkah, Jeddah and Taif.

During common incidents and major events like Haij and Umrah, the solution has helped improve the police and civil defense response for citizens and pilgrims. The ministry’s personnel manage about 43,000 calls per day during Umrah season operations and about 61,000 during the Hajj, now through unified call handling for its Police Patrol, Traffic and Civil Defense sectors and the Road Security Special Forces,

The ministry plans to use this solution as a model for expansion of these 911 centers into other provinces.

]]>https://www10.giscafe.com/blogs/gissusan/2017/10/26/from-the-highest-mountaintop-to-the-arabian-desert-with-geospatial/feed/05181Hexagon Acquisition of GISquadrat GmbH Enhances Reach of Geospatial for Governments and Utilities in Europehttps://www10.giscafe.com/blogs/gissusan/2016/10/06/hexagon-acquisition-of-gisquadrat-gmbh-enhances-reach-of-geospatial-for-governments-and-utilities-in-europe/
https://www10.giscafe.com/blogs/gissusan/2016/10/06/hexagon-acquisition-of-gisquadrat-gmbh-enhances-reach-of-geospatial-for-governments-and-utilities-in-europe/#respondThu, 06 Oct 2016 16:46:46 +0000http://www10.giscafe.com/blogs/gissusan/?p=4675Hexagon Safety & Infrastructure acquired GISquadrat GmbH of Vienna, Austria. The acquisition is aimed at enhancing Hexagon’s geospatial, cloud and mobile solutions for governments and utility providers in Europe as well as bringing in more than 300 customers and thousands of users into the Hexagon fold.

A Hexagon partner prior to the acquisition, GISquadrat uses Hexagon software in the cloud to provide data capture and management services and applications, including task-specific field solutions for infrastructure networks and public services. GISquadrat’s Data-as-a-Service (DaaS) solutions provide lower total cost of ownership for business-critical data.

The acquisition of GISquadrat expands Hexagon’s offerings for governments and utilities of all sizes. Existing Austrian customers as well as new customers coming on board will benefit from the combined solutions from the two companies.

GISCafe Voice: Are you able to provide the financial details of the acquisition?

MW: No, we don’t provide financial details.

GISCafe Voice: Is this considered a significant acquisition?

MW: This acquisition is important for our business in Austria and also will enhance our suite of solutions for utilities and local governments in Europe.

GISCafe Voice: What is the purpose of this acquisition for Hexagon?

MW: GISquadrat was a partner to Hexagon Safety & Infrastructure prior to the acquisition. We share customers, and GISquadrat’s solutions leverage Hexagon software. The acquisition will enable us to provide a single vendor solution for existing customers and prospects. It also will bring GISquadrat’s applications into our solution set.

GISCafe Voice:Will there be new offices in addition to the old ones for those working for GISquadrat and how many employees does the company currently have?

MW: GISquadrat will maintain its existing locations. Of course, GISquadrat employees will interact with Hexagon personnel moving forward, which may include visits to Hexagon offices. The company employs 25 people.

GISCafe Voice:Will new products be generated by Hexagon as a result of the acquisition of GISquadrat?

MW: GISquadrat has built applications on top of Hexagon products that expand our solutions. For example, it developed extensions to GeoMedia Smart Client for water/waste water networks, electrical networks, cadastral workflows, GIS for tourism and GPS-based mobile workflows.

MW: GISquadrat deploys Hexagon’s GeoMedia Smart Client in a cloud environment, delivering data-as-a-service to customers. This has been a cost-effective approach for smaller utilities and municipal governments.

GISCafe Voice:You mentioned a focus on utility; are there other market segments this acquisition will benefit?

MW: Yes, we will offer support for cadastre and tourism, specifically. In fact, GISquadrat’s solutions can support various local government applications that rely on spatial information and workflows.

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]]>https://www10.giscafe.com/blogs/gissusan/2016/10/06/hexagon-acquisition-of-gisquadrat-gmbh-enhances-reach-of-geospatial-for-governments-and-utilities-in-europe/feed/04675GISCafe’s 2016 Trends Reporthttps://www10.giscafe.com/blogs/gissusan/2016/01/08/giscafes-2016-trends-report/
https://www10.giscafe.com/blogs/gissusan/2016/01/08/giscafes-2016-trends-report/#respondFri, 08 Jan 2016 16:21:31 +0000http://www10.giscafe.com/blogs/gissusan/?p=4303Top trends that we can expect to see dominating the geospatial landscape in 2016 are trends driven in large part by world events and climate change. Technologies play a large part in how well we will be able to manage climate change and attendant disasters, world events that include terrorism, and disease.

Our trends list includes: climate change, disease trends, indoor mapping, Esri storymapping, and low cost storage in the cloud, many of which are linked in importance.

Climate Change

Climate Change mapping analysis is a vital part of the big picture looking at how to manage the crisis of climate change globally.

Chen Zhen, Secretary General of CEDAAB (left) and Leon Qiu, Vice Secretary General of CEDAAB and Principal at DLR Group

In our coverage of COP21/CMP11it was noted by Prince Charles of the UK that climate change was a huge factor in nations’ suffering from famine and drought, which caused people to need to migrate away from their homes, which caused deep distress leading to terrorism. So in the larger scheme of things, climate change is linked to:

Jim Tobias, Senior GIS developer, Northrup Grumman Contractor, Center for Disease Control and Prevention, provided the above links as well as others in this article to enlighten some future trends.

According to Ed Mazria, Architecture 2030 Founder and CEO, the long term goal of the resultant Paris Agreement committed almost 200 countries including the U.S., China, India and the EU nations, to keep the global average temperature increase to “well below 2 degrees C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees C”. The China Accord is a manifestation of the efforts of architects and planners in China and internationally to lower greenhouse emissions in the build environment.

Ed Mazria presenting the China Accord at the UNFCCC COP21 Buildings Day

Disease Trends

At two primary geospatial events last year, keynote speakers spoke on the topic of epidemiology.

When Ebola hit West Africa in 2014, the outbreak began similarly to the way it happened in central Africa originally, and may have come from an infected bat. The virus did something different this time. “The virus took advantage of the fact no one had seen it before and when they finally began to know about it, it had already spread across over 26,000 people, 11,000 people dead,” said Dr. Aylward.

“Stopping the outbreak would require extraordinary international and national response.”

Cultural problems were on the horizon as specially clad teams would have to come and carry away the dead which proved terrifying to the people in the small villages. This is a beautiful area, but the terrain isolates villages and also fed the rumor mill of who was coming to help and what the disease actually was.

What was indicative of for everyone involved, was that to fight a disease of such magnitude, responders should be prepared for it on a larger scale than just Africa in the event that it becomes disease that affects the rest of the world. We did see isolated cases of Ebola in the UK and the U.S. in 2014, as well as some other countries.

While indoor mapping has been talked about for many years, it would seem that with the use of more sensor technology, it is coming to the forefront. The need to be able to track indoor assets with GIS has been growing and while initially, it was considered for defense, it is now being used for retail and accessibility.

Las Vegas Convention Center

TomTom (TOM2) has announced a strategic partnership with worldwide indoor mapping leader, Micello Inc., extending the reach of its mapping products to include indoor venues.

TomTom’s business customers will now be able to use Micello’s pedestrian-friendly indoor maps and venue content with points-of-interest data worldwide.

Michael Healander, founder of Geometri, spoke with GISCafe Voice about the evolution of that company, and the recent announcement from Geographic Information Services, Inc. (GISi) an Esri Platinum Partner, that its Board of Directors has formally approved the spin-off of its operating unit, GISi Indoors, as an independent company. The new business is named Geometri, LLC., Geometri is the name of their flagship indoor GIS software-as-a-service product.

“The reason we got into indoor mapping,” said Healander, “Is we focused on the fact that when you go indoors you lose your navigation on your phone. And there’s a lot of opportunity as people spend money indoors. It’s hard to navigate, and we took on that problem. We built a platform and called it Geometri. We have taken complex pieces of technology to create indoor GPS, whether indoor maps, indoor routing or indoor search. We’ve taking the outdoor routing algorithms that we used in our main company and now we make them for indoor.”

Now you can do multi-floor routing, wheelchair accessibility routing, routing for how to get to class or through the building at the University of Washington. At the same institution, it will route you by selecting “avoid stairs” to support Americans with Disabilities Act.

Esri Storymapping has provided a large amount of data in a novelized way, that is easy to ingest and has revolutionized the way we can get data about a particular event.

As described by the author of the Star Wars Storymap, Isabella Rojs, “With this map, I would like to give you a worldwide tour of all the locations used for filming the six Star Wars movies. The tour will lead you from Episode I to Episode VI, from Guatemala to China.”

The Cloud has been on the geospatial bucket list for a few years now, but it continues to be an avenue by which more data can be stored, reviewed and manipulated.

(C) DigitalGlobe 2015.

The ability to share high resolution imagery is having a huge impact of world affairs, evidenced by the company SpaceKnow’s ability to show the historical activity at the North Korean Nuclear testing site that followed the reported Thermo Nuclear test this week. Spaceknow used its analytics to detect changes in the location of the supposed nuclear test facility. What their imagery shows is that the test facility has expanded over a larger geographical area in the past few years.

Using Spaceknow analytics, we were able to detect changes in the area of the supposed nuclear test facility. The facility clearly expanded over a larger area in the last years. All Images (C) DigitalGlobe 2015.

Esri and NASA are collaborating to improve access to imagery and raster data stored in the cloud, by using a combination of Meta Raster Format (MRF) and Limited Error Raster Compression (LERC).

According to company materials, MRF is an Open raster format originally designed at the NASA Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) to optimize web access to rasters. LERC is a highly efficient algorithm that provides fast lossless and controlled lossy compression of image and raster data. Esri was recently awarded a US Patent for LERC, and is making the patented LERC technology freely available to the geospatial and earth sciences community.

The advantage of MRF and LERC that Esri and NASA will make available is that organizations will be able to lower storage costs and gain fast access to imagery and data as web services.

Handheld’s Nautiz X8 is an ultra rugged device

In addition, cloud enabled mobile devices allow data to be taken out into the field and gathered in the field with increasing efficiency. UAVs offer a new exciting way to gather data in the field at less cost than satellite imagery and scanning. Consequently, we will see more apps and ways of facilitating these processes as time goes on.

]]>https://www10.giscafe.com/blogs/gissusan/2016/01/08/giscafes-2016-trends-report/feed/04303New Green GIS Initiative from Intergraph Announced at INTERGEOhttps://www10.giscafe.com/blogs/gissusan/2015/09/22/new-green-gis-initiative-from-intergraph-announced-at-intergeo/
https://www10.giscafe.com/blogs/gissusan/2015/09/22/new-green-gis-initiative-from-intergraph-announced-at-intergeo/#respondWed, 23 Sep 2015 02:07:57 +0000http://www10.giscafe.com/blogs/gissusan/?p=4195Dr. Matthias Alisch, senior marketing manager, EMEA Intergraph Security, Government & Infrastructure (SG&I) spoke about the company’s new Green GIS Initiative in Europe which offers a more energy-efficient and climate-friendly IT process. The new Initiative was announced at INTERGEO last week in Stuttgart, Germany.

Intergraph’s Green GIS Initiative is designed to reduce storage requirements and energy costs, and make data centers more efficient and environmentally friendly. The combination of their patented ECW (Enhanced Compressed Wavelet) data compression format, and the new version of the ERDAS APOLLO application, Intergraph and its Hexagon Geospatial software offer a package that is said to drastically reduces the volume of raster data and point clouds. This leads to a lower demand on storage capacity as well as associated operating and cooling power requirements.

GISCafe Voice:You have had ECW data compression for a long time. Is this Green GIS Initiative a new idea to showcase the existing value of ECW or have you done something different with ECW recently?

Dr. Matthias Alisch: There were improvements in the ECW Plug-In for competitor solutions like ECW Plug-In for ArcGIS. However, the most outstanding thing in ECW V3 is the possibility of incrementally update the ECW file; thus dramatically reduces the computational effort for keeping the ECW up-to-date; and this perfectly fits to our approach to lower carbon emissions of the IT processes of our customers.

GISCafe Voice: Do you have other examples of shrinking datasets such as the complete aerial image dataset of Germany to 5 percent its original size? This is quite a substantial savings!

Dr. Matthias Alisch: There are other substantial benefits as well, e.g. shrinking the aerial pictures covering South Africa. The Amazon Cloud Storage Service S3 shows that for 71 terabytes of image data at tile cache level 19 and 30 centimetres tile width costs are lower by 98 percent by employing ECW compression. Savings of more than 4,000 Euros monthly and up to 65,000 Euros per annum can be calculated for cloud server utilisation. However, the outstanding element for Germany is the ground resolution, as this dramatically increases the need (and of course storage footprint) for the depth and levels of the picture pyramid in the traditional technology.

GISCafe Voice: In what way will Intergraph be able to diminish the carbon footprint of spatial data with ERDAS APOLLO?

Dr. Matthias Alisch: ERDAS APOLLO supports that activity for raster data and point clouds by three main elements: minimizing the demands on storage capacity; load balancing the computational effort between a minimized set of servers and a maximized set of clients; reducing bandwidth requirements by streaming only the demanded data to the client instead of the whole dataset for instance of point clouds in traditional approaches.

GISCafe Voice:It looks as though this initiative means that Intergraph will be relying more on the cloud. How will you be able to use Green IT for those customers who do not want to use the cloud?Dr. Matthias Alisch: The approach is exactly the same for cloud as well as for on premise infrastructures.

GISCafe Voice: It sounds as though you don’t believe cost and carbon savings can be had on the hardware side. Can you explain that further?

Dr. Matthias Alisch: It is crystal clear that on the hardware side, the percentage of getting better and enabling sustainable improvements becomes more complicated as the hardware has already reached a highly optimized level. So the easiest way of getting quite easily better results is to promote software which operates as cost and resource efficient as possible to simply minimize the demanded hardware.

GISCafe Voice: Is there any concern about degradation of data such as point clouds, and other big Is data coming from sources such as satellites and drones? How does ECW address those concerns?

Dr. Matthias Alisch: As stated, degrading and streaming point clouds is already in the scope with excellent results as well. Big data of drones and micro satellites makes the necessity of acting green even more viral; it is on the horizon and we have to start responding today in order to have the answers to the themes of crucial importance to the future of our society.

Regarding the Wichmann Innovations Award 2015, on Thursday Sept 17th Intergraph SG&I has achieved the second place; winner is Leica Geosystems, our sister company within the worldwide Hexagon group.

Further information relating to Green IT, Green GIS and the carbon footprint initiative can be found at Green GIS.

]]>https://www10.giscafe.com/blogs/gissusan/2015/09/22/new-green-gis-initiative-from-intergraph-announced-at-intergeo/feed/04195I/Map Editor and I/Map Editor for ArcGIS Now Availablehttps://www10.giscafe.com/blogs/gissusan/2015/06/03/imap-editor-and-imap-editor-for-arcgis-now-available/
https://www10.giscafe.com/blogs/gissusan/2015/06/03/imap-editor-and-imap-editor-for-arcgis-now-available/#respondWed, 03 Jun 2015 23:06:47 +0000http://www10.giscafe.com/blogs/gissusan/?p=4006The result of a collaboration between Esri and Intergraph Security Government and Infrastructure (SG&I) announced in March is the release of I/Map Editor for ArcGIS, a new product that works directly with Esri’s ArcGIS Platform to migrate geospatial data into Intergraph’s Computer-Aided Dispatch Software (I/CAD), allowing tighter integration between those two products. The new product was unveiled at this week’s HXGN LIVE 2015 in Las Vegas. Vice president of Public Safety Products, Intergraph SG&I Kalyn Sims, talks to GISCafe Voice about the announcement.

GISCafe Voice: “I/Map Editor for ArcGIS brings advanced mapping features to Intergraph’s map build environment, automating and streamlining map creation in I/CAD.” Can you describe how users might use this tool?

Kalyn Sims: Intergraph´s I/CAD system uses a proprietary map format that supports many different types of functions, such as validating addresses that come in through 911 calls, geocoding those addresses and more. Built on Esri’s ArcGIS Platform, I/Map Editor for ArcGIS enables I/CAD map production within ArcGIS. An extension hosted in ArcMap, it natively connects to Esri data sources.

With I/Map Editor for ArcGIS, users can:

Identify geometries not supported by the I/ CAD map, e.g., features with more than 8,000 vertices, arcs, and geometry collections

Build the street centerline network for routing and location verification

Produce polygon files for service zones and other geographic areas, e.g., patrol areas and neighborhoods

Publish the I/CAD map file

Define default routing parameters for use in I/CAD routing

GISCafe Voice: “I/Map Editor for ArcGIS is designed to minimize the number of different systems and steps required for ArcGIS users, offering them a one-stop shop for uploading data into their I/CAD system.” Can you describe how this make it easier for the data from ArcGIS to come into I/CAD systems?

Kalyn Sims: Previously, ArcGIS users were required to go through multiple steps in order to get their data transferred into the format required by I/CAD. We understood this created challenges for customers in managing GIS data on multiple systems. I/Map Editor for ArcGIS streamlines that process and allows customers to convert their data in ArcGIS, making the process more efficient.

GISCafe Voice: Is this a free feature with subscription to I/CAD and Esri ArcGIS or is there an additional cost?

Kalyn Sims: Yes, there is a cost attached to both options: I/Map Editor and I/Map Editor for ArcGIS.

According to company materials, built on Intergraph’s GeoMedia, I/Map Editor permits the use of GIS data from third-party systems as the source of map graphics in I/CAD. Built on ArcGIS, the new I/Map Editor for ArcGIS enables I/CAD map production within ArcGIS. An extension hosted in ArcMap, it natively connects to Esri data sources.

Intergraph’s I/CAD system is critical to public safety operations, enabling agencies to promptly answer emergency and non-emergency calls, create and update incidents and manage multiple resources in real time. Intergraph’s I/Map Editor products facilitate the use of GIS data as the source of mapping information in I/CAD.

]]>https://www10.giscafe.com/blogs/gissusan/2015/06/03/imap-editor-and-imap-editor-for-arcgis-now-available/feed/04006Intergraph and Esri Collaborate to Enhance Geospatial for Public Safetyhttps://www10.giscafe.com/blogs/gissusan/2015/03/26/intergraph-and-esri-collaborate-to-enhance-geospatial-for-public-safety/
https://www10.giscafe.com/blogs/gissusan/2015/03/26/intergraph-and-esri-collaborate-to-enhance-geospatial-for-public-safety/#commentsFri, 27 Mar 2015 03:50:20 +0000http://www10.giscafe.com/blogs/gissusan/?p=3904In an interview with vice president of Public Safety Products, Intergraph SG&I Kalyn Sims, and Russ Johnson, director of Public Safety for Esri, discussed the latest collaboration between the two companies, to enhance geospatial capabilities for public safety and security agencies. Through the collaboration, the companies will work to more tightly align Intergraph’s Computer-Aided Dispatch system, I/CAD, and Esri’s ArcGIS Platform.

Because CAD and GIS are so vital to public safety and incident management, this alliance makes a lot of sense. Together, call-taking and dispatch software, maps and spatial data provide agencies with the information they need to provide for and protect the public. Solutions that work cohesively enable agencies to do their jobs quicker and more efficiently.

GISCafe Voice: What do you feel are the benefits for your individual companies, for the agencies you’ve been interacting with up to this point, and for the public?

Kalyn Sims: Intergraph and Esri are collaborating to enhance benefits for the public safety and security market. The goal is to tightly align Intergraph’s Computer-Aided Dispatch System as well as our other public safety products with Esri’s ArcGIS platform. We started out with a development of a new product which is iMap editor for ArcGIS, which will be released in June. Our I/CAD system runs against a proprietary Intergraph map component that supports many different GIS functions such as geocoding, routing first responders to events, displaying locations of units on a map, etc. Whenever we do a CAD implementation project, we need to import whatever GIS data our customer is using into our proprietary format. So historically, Intergraph has offered a product we call iMap Editor that runs on top Intergraph’s Geomedia product suite, and that allows our customers to bring their data into our proprietary format. What we’re doing with Esri is we’re building a similar product but it will run within Esri’s ArcGIS platform, and this enables our Esri-based customers to more efficiently get their GIS data into the I/CAD format using tools that are familiar to them (ArcGIS). It will also give them the ability to more frequently update their data, which benefits our agencies and the public they serve by enabling the most up-to-date geospatial data possible within their first responder systems.

Russ Johnson: From the Esri perspective, we have a lot of customers and organizations who use Esri platforms to do work other than public safety. This enables them to manage that data and have a one-stop shop where they can do all their work/edits, then upload it into Intergraph I/CAD. Many of our customers use Intergraph I/CAD. It’s a good CAD system, so this provides them a way to avoid extra steps to convert their data, and directly feed into Intergraph I/CAD system.

I think this benefits customers immensely, makes their jobs easier, and also makes it possible to look at other potential data that might be interesting for other public safety solutions. Or there might be a desire to use it in the Intergraph I/CAD system environment.

Our collaboration with Esri is purely within our public safety and security business.

GISCafe Voice: What are the kinds of challenges that have led you to create this type of resource for the different agencies and public?

Kalyn Sims: For this first stage of our collaboration, the biggest change from the Intergraph perspective, since many of our customers are Esri-based, have ArcGIS, and they want to able to do their GIS work, including transferring their CAD data within ArcGIS. This eliminates some steps for them and enables them to be able to work more efficiently be able to get their data into CAD quicker and more frequently. As their geospatial footprint changes, they can assure responders have access to the most up-to-date data. Not that they couldn’t access their data before, it’s just a more streamlined more efficient process for users that are familiar with ArcGIS.

Russ Johnson: It just makes the Esri users more efficient in their capability to manage not only GIS work they do, but now they do not have to touch another system in order to provide additional edits and data management with I/CAD.

GISCafe Voice: Do you have other relationships with GIS vendors that offer public safety solutions?

Kalyn Sims: Intergraph realizes that in today’s dynamic tech environment we need to be able to offer options to our customers, with whatever mapping solutions they’re using. Our goal is to make our map production process as simple and straightforward and streamlined as we can.

Russ Johnson: From the Esri perspective, we have over 3,000 partners that we work with that provide solutions to various industries, public safety being one of those. We’re focused on empowering partners to use and build robust solutions that either are built on top of or integrate with our technology. So we’re always looking for opportunities to help our customers in any way we can with solutions and partners that provide capability in any industry.

]]>https://www10.giscafe.com/blogs/gissusan/2015/03/26/intergraph-and-esri-collaborate-to-enhance-geospatial-for-public-safety/feed/23904GISCafe Special Feature Blog: Emergency Response and Recoveryhttps://www10.giscafe.com/blogs/gissusan/2015/03/20/giscafe-special-feature-blog-emergency-response-and-recovery/
https://www10.giscafe.com/blogs/gissusan/2015/03/20/giscafe-special-feature-blog-emergency-response-and-recovery/#respondFri, 20 Mar 2015 22:46:49 +0000http://www10.giscafe.com/blogs/gissusan/?p=3880In recent years, Emergency Response and Recovery has been tasked with addressing the growing number of natural disasters and manmade disasters worldwide. When a disaster happens, the role of GIS and geospatial is front and center in the identification of location and the location of individuals impacted in the event, as well as the clarification of the physical damage to vital structures. It is also fundamental to the provision of medical care and utilities during a time when those things may be scarce or non-existent.

In gathering information for this article, I was surprised by the depth of the responses. As a result, this article will outline not only geospatial technologies available, but the importance of different solutions for interoperability, location, 3D urban models, technology designed for local responders, traffic jam data, field applications and much more.

The offerings from some of the smaller providers round out the solutions from the bigger companies with some very insightful perspectives on the bigger picture of emergency response.

Services and Products

Chris McIntosh, Emergency Management Industry Manager said that when disaster strikes, Esri’s Disaster Response Program (DRP) Disaster Relief is there to support responders around the clock, 24 x 7. “Request assistance from Esri experts, augment software, explore content, and monitor events online as part of our corporate citizenship. We’re there when responders need us most,” he said.

According to Kalyn Sims, Vice President of Public Safety Products, Intergraph SG&I, Intergraph provides extensive solutions for public safety, security and emergency management. These include integrated capabilities for public safety dispatching, law enforcement records management, data reporting and analysis, physical security information management and field solutions, including mobile apps. Also included are geospatial visualization, analysis and information management capabilities for emergency planning, preparedness and recovery.

Intergraph states that the foundation for public safety, security and emergency management operations is a common operational picture (COP). By referencing data to a common spatial framework, a COP provides a comprehensive, up-to-the-minute view of the situation on the ground, fusing static mapping with real-time data feeds, often from multiple agencies and organizations.

The COP’s spatial framework helps the operator understand situations more quickly by showing the locational context of an incident and providing links to supplementary information that can help determine whether action is required. It also enables spatial analysis techniques to be applied to real-time data to automate and streamline processes, saving vital time; for example, optimizing the locations of responders to enable shortest response times across a service area.

In the news just this past week was a collaboration announcement between Intergraph and Esri to enhance geospatial capabilities for public safety and security agencies. Through this collaboration the companies will work together to align Intergraph’s Computer-Aided Dispatch system, I/CAD and Esri’s ArcGIS platform.

TomTom’s content is used by their partners who provide various visualization solutions implemented in a wide range of applications, including emergency management and response. TomTom develops, maintains and distributes advanced navigable map data for 127 countries throughout the world. They also provide real-time traffic information for 46 countries.

Trimble offers a variety of modeling and analysis software that enables assessment and visualization of existing, planned, and changed environments, both built and natural, according to Rick Gosalvez, market manager, Trimble Local Government. Some of Trimble’s visualization solutions include SketchUp for easy rendering and modeling, Inpho UASMaster for rapid aerial mapping, eCognition for rapid land classification and advanced change analysis, and Trimble Feedback for centralized review and visualization of crowdsourced data collected from the public.

Trimble UX5

Seamless image capture and image analysis technology enables governments to collect a massive amount of data and mine it for useful information in a short amount of time. For example, eCognition consumes Trimble UX5 imagery and compares it to historical aerial images to conduct change analysis for emergency response planning.

Smaller companies with significant emergency response offerings include the following:

Pictometry, an EagleView Company, offers RapidAccess, an emergency response program offering immediate flights after an emergency or disaster. Within days, Pictometry can capture high-resolution aerial imagery post event, allowing users to view damage quickly in support of rescue, recovery and assessment efforts. It enables emergency teams to prioritize response with the help of up-to-date, high resolution imagery within days of the disaster, helping to get people back on track quickly.

International Computer Works, Inc. (ICW) provides data conversion, software, training and support. Specifically, GeoNENA and GeoCAD911 provide direct application to the construction of the 911 database for the PSAP and a real time map display with address recommendations for use in dispatching for calls originating from a mobile device.

CubeWerx OpenImageMap

CubeWerx is a geospatial products and services company offering rapid cloud-based hosting, processing and delivery of aerial imagery through Open APIs. Cubewerx OpenImageMap is an innovative, collaborative platform for deploying any volume of geospatial imagery and then delivering it seamlessly through multiple Open APIs, protected by a robust and security layer.

OpenImageMap is a collaborative image tiling platform that provides a cloud-hosted geospatial platform where multiple stake-holders can post aerial imagery, process it and serve it out as a combined map via standard APIs like Google Maps, Bing, OGC Services (WMS and WMTS) etc.

Maptitude Generic GIS and mapping software is designed to model 3D environments within a GIS system at no additional cost. This makes it possible for even small communities to model their towns to be better prepared for emergency events.

In an emergency, you need accurate data quickly. You don’t have time to hunt for it; you need to be able to access information to support critical decisions with only a few interactions. AOP makes interagency intelligence, crowdsourced social media feeds and associated map data accessible with a tap, click or targeted search.

deployment of public safety assets using GIS technology. Over 200 organizations have already reduced response times to routine 9-1-1 incidents and improved compliance with organizational response goals through a better understanding of demand patterns and response capabilities.

According to Chris Bradshaw, vice president of Marketing, “Our newest version of MARVLIS is extending these same benefits to law enforcement organizations by providing unique, tiered crime forecasts to improve the actions that lead to meaningful results in reducing crimes.”

MARVLIS from BCS uses ArcGIS technology to forecast demand hotspots for an entire jurisdiction several times each hour. These automatically updated demand surfaces visualize changing patterns similar to the way meteorologists visualize and forecast weather patterns. Vehicle GPS locations are superimposed on the demand grid along with a dynamic vector service area to identify resource response capabilities along with the expected demand.

Tony Isaacs vice president, Business Development described their company as follows: “PLW Modelworks provides geospecific, geolocated 3D urban models from our Melbourne, FL offices as content that can be used for any purpose, including Emergency Response and Recovery Solutions. Our 3D models are simulation ready and we work with our clients to provide customized optimizations for them.”

What the Future Will Look Like

McIntosh notes that “The future of Emergency Management surrounds the use of mission focused applications that allow responders to access, share, and visualize information how they need it, when they need it, and where you need it.”

Coming up to the plate, modern technologies, web GIS, the cloud, and the rise of apps have combined to bring powerful emergency response solutions into reach for most customers. Variations in implementations from completely hosted to “on premise” environments allow municipalities and communities to configure solutions that accurately meet their needs.

According to Kenneth Clay, marketing manager, TomTom, “a critical component of emergency response is the ability to quickly and accurately identify the location of the situation. TomTom produces real-time maps, meaning they more closely mimic real-world conditions. The company is able to accomplish this mission through a hybrid approach that optimizes professional mapmaking through the use of community input from hundreds of millions of map users.”

The critical location and transportation information TomTom incorporates comes from mobile mapping vans, field survey, authoritative resources, probe data and sensors. These resources are fused through a transactional mapmaking engine, producing map changes that are distributed regularly. “This ensures our partners have access to the most recent map changes,” said Clay.

The future of Emergency Response, according to Clay, is an improved ability to find the location of interest, coupled with improved drive-time efficiency derived from real-time views of current traffic conditions.

“I see Emergency Response continuing to mature and take advantage of new technologies to provide superior levels of service at times of need,” said Isaacs. “As hardware becomes more powerful and inexpensive more sophisticated scenario planning using advanced simulation software with content such as PLW 3D urban models can be used to best prepare for an emergency. In addition, real-time systems can take advantage of these and other technological advances to provide actionable information to those involved in the management of emergency response resources. These sophisticated systems are occurring at all levels of the government.”

Sims says that the move toward Next Generation 911 presents enormous challenges and opportunities. “Soon, citizens will use voice, text, video, photos and even social media to “call” 911. Public safety answering points (PSAPs) will also receive information from vehicle telematics, intelligent roadway systems, citizen medical information services and other sensors and services.”

This wealth of information has the capability to improve response decisions and increase the safety of first responders, according to Sims. It also has the possibility of overwhelming the PSAP. It is critical that dispatch systems manage this data so that it can be used efficiently by call-takers, dispatchers and first responders. Intergraph has developed software that will help integrate call control and call-taker functions in one environment and integrate voice and text calls with video and photo attachments for better situational awareness.

Latitude Geographics states that stakeholder interoperability during incident response is an important goal. Achieving the use of standard alerting protocols and sensor web integration will play a large role in the years ahead. Programs such as UICDS, XchangeCore, MASAS-X (Canada), Oasis, Virtual USA and others are striving to provide necessary data to the responder community, with others expected to come on board in the future.

According to Ken Tozier, GISP International Computer Works, Inc., “The future of Emergency Response is in the field. Direct updates to central, shared databases and maps by field personnel and first responders. More of this will be automated and produced in real-time as sensors and tracking technology improves.”

“Rapid information after an emergency is critical,” said Scott Sherwood, vice president, Corporate Sales Enablement, Pictometry. “The ability to see pre- and post-event imagery allows response teams to work effectively and efficiently. With ever changing weather and other uncontrollable events, response teams need to have procedures in places, such as RapidAccess, to know they can obtain accurate geo-coded imagery immediately to gather needed data and intelligence. The need for this type of high-resolution imagery and the ability to view it within days will only grow in demand.”

What we will most likely see also are more collaborations between major geospatial organizations such as the one between Esri and Intergraph.

Market Changes

The rise of applications are bringing GIS mainstream, says McIntosh. “Now the market is being driven by mission focused apps that leverage the power of the GIS that are in the hands of responders.”

According to Latitude, there is a growing need for better interoperability, mobile solutions, real-time data, social media integration, decision support and more.

“The change we have seen in emergency response mapping is the need to be able to rapidly map data, out-of-the-box, and to have the tools needed at their finger-tips to analyze geospatial data immediately,” says CEO Stewart Berry. “Maptitude meets those needs.”

Along the same lines, Sherwood says “speed to delivery and the expectations associated with that are escalating. As technology has grown, so the market looks to providers to be able to deliver rapidly after a disaster in a scalable way that fits within current workflows.”

Isaacs said there is more demand for 3D content for Emergency Response solutions at the municipal and community levels as well as from providers of simulation software for this market.

And Bradshaw of BCS reminds us that, all emergency responses are ultimately supported by a finite group of local, or extended mutual-aid, responders. “While it is tempting to focus efforts on the occasional large disasters that make headlines, technology that helps local dispatchers, resource deployment managers, and incident managers to utilize these resources most effectively in their daily operations is most beneficial. Regular use returns the greatest value by maximizing operational budgets throughout the year. This familiarity with the application also means it can be adapted for special occasions whether planned or unplanned.”

Resilient cities are those that will bounce back after a major disaster, according to Trimble’s Golsavez “To accomplish resiliency, governments will require properly planned infrastructure and programs to quickly assess impacts caused by major events. With UAS, mobile imaging and remote sensing technologies, governments will be able to quickly accomplish damage assessments in order to prioritize response efforts from a macro to micro scale. These technologies are available today and getting better quickly”.

With technology that allows governments to easily capture conditions for their built and natural environments, governments will be in a position to be more resilient because they will be able to quickly compare before and after impacts of events and programs.

The market has significantly changed with the advent of modern in-vehicle navigation and smartphone technologies, according to Clay of TomTom. “These technologies denote that emergency response solutions are not only lower cost, but also reach the public more effectively than previous technologies.”

Costs

More affordable Emergency Response solutions are predicted for the future for municipalities and communities. All respondents agree that trends like mobility and the cloud, platforms such as smartphones and tablets to empower field personnel to send and receive real-time information as part of an enterprise information system, all conspire to make Emergency Response solutions more accessible, timely and cost-effective.

A significant portion of past spending in public safety has been based on grants that are now becoming less accessible. Organizations are increasingly being required to live within budgets. Preferred solutions will be those that can show a record of saving money and improving agency performance.

“I think that the cost of hardware capable of running the systems used for Emergency Response will continue to decrease and that software solutions will continue to become more sophisticated and affordable over time,” said Isaacs. “Also, the effectiveness of Emergency Response solutions will continue to improve in both the scenario planning and actual crisis management areas which will allow municipalities and communities to obtain stakeholder buy-in for the expected costs.”

Clay notes that a key component of TomTom’s sourcing strategy is the use of anonymous GPS-based probe data. This probe data comes from personal navigation devices, third party applications and fleet solutions, smartphones. “When compared to traditional detection and survey methods,” said Clay, “Use of probe data has proven equally effective from a quality perspective, yet much more cost effective by foregoing manpower and fleet expenses associated with driving surveys or Bluetooth deployments.”

Tozier says, “Costs may not change, but with NG911 the ability to accurately respond to calls for emergency services for the protection of life, limb and property will improve. The shift to GIS as the basis for building the digital model vs traditional tabular databases have the strong potential for the creation of accurate and precise databases.”

Game Changers in the Industry

Emergency management organizations face tremendous challenges meeting greater demands with fewer resources. Esri’s common operation platform supports the complex mission of preventing, protecting against, mitigating, responding to and recovering from threats and hazards. Communities will also be able to connect up with local, state, national and international agencies that support the mission.

“The availability of data and the ability to quickly deliver that data in a focused way to operators on any device at any time will fundamentally change the way that we do business,” says Esri’s Chris McIntosh.

Vector Grid with Hurricane Wind and Pressure DataFeatured Map – June 2013This Maptitude map shows a color theme of wind and a scaled symbol theme of pressure based on historical hurricane track vector data. The map comes from Prof. Grant Thrall’s video, Part 2: Vector To Raster Grid Conversion: Calculation of Risk to Real Estate. Nuclear Power Plant Disasters in the U.S.? Maptitude maps featured in MapCruzin.com report.

Maptitude includes the ability to model 3D environments within a GIS system at no additional cost: 3D mapping . This allows even small communities to model their towns to be better prepared for emergency situations.

“Change detection is game changing in emergency response,” says Sherwood of Pictometry. “Not only can Pictometry provide rapid high-resolution imagery within days, but they can also follow that with ongoing change analysis for the county. It is third-party verification of change that was create by the disaster or emergency. For flooding or storms, this is critical, not just for the initial response, but for ongoing assessment after the emergency.”

Intergraph has a long history of innovation in emergency response. “For example, we were the first vendor to offer a dispatch system with a fully integrated map and geographic database,” says Sims.

Most geospatial companies that offer Emergency Response solutions work with other geospatial companies to enhance the strength of their services.

Will Climate Change Driven Storms Result in Fukushima-Like Nuclear Power Plant Disasters in the U.S.?Featured Map – January 2013Maptitude maps are featured in a MapCruzin.com report on the likelihood that flooding at dozens of nuclear reactors could result in a Fukushima-like disaster in the U.S.MapCruzin

An example is, ICW, that offers an economical real time map display along with the tools with which to build the data used in the system running in a MapInfo Professional platform. Regional data sharing does not have to be GIS brand dependent. On the contrary, data portability across platforms is the key.

PLW Modelworks works with geospatial software companies such as ESRI and Autodesk to provide 3D urban model content optimized for their platforms. Combined with the advances and cost efficiencies in hardware, these optimizations allow more sophisticated simulation, tracking and real-time solutions to be offered to end-users. PLW can also utilize multiple input sources such as UAV or mobile mapping data to create and/or enhance their 3D urban models.

TomTom provides real-time map content that contains the most up-to-date depiction of the road network that is commercially available. The company also offers real time traffic content with average speeds and incident data available every minute.

“With access to real-time maps and traffic content from TomTom, and the adoption of weather content, partner solutions can more accurately depict current transportation conditions, thus leading to more efficient Emergency Response,” says Clay.

Summary

All those in Federal, state, county and local governments can benefit and save lives with an efficient Emergency Response template in place. Utilities, water, and environmental industries, homeland security, border control, public safety, security and emergency management organizations, fleet tracking, usage-based insurance, resource management, disaster relief, agriculture, mining, oil and gas, forestry who are dependent upon having access to the most recent information in rapidly changing scenarios are potential and real customers for advancements in Emergency Response.

The future of Emergency Response is now; each day another opportunity arises to exercise the muscles of the new technologies and learn more about what will be needed for faster response, 24/7 coverage, data reporting and physical security, and how to address recovery and much more. With new 3D cities technologies in place, governments and agencies will also be able to build more resilient cities to withstand whatever emergencies befall them.

]]>https://www10.giscafe.com/blogs/gissusan/2015/03/20/giscafe-special-feature-blog-emergency-response-and-recovery/feed/03880Intergraph and ETAP form Strategic Alliance to Benefit Utilities Customershttps://www10.giscafe.com/blogs/gissusan/2015/02/27/intergraph-and-etap-form-strategic-alliance-to-benefit-utilities-customers/
https://www10.giscafe.com/blogs/gissusan/2015/02/27/intergraph-and-etap-form-strategic-alliance-to-benefit-utilities-customers/#respondFri, 27 Feb 2015 18:50:57 +0000http://www10.giscafe.com/blogs/gissusan/?p=3865Michel Gilles, vice president for Utilities and Communications for Intergraph, talked with GISCafe Voice this week about the recent strategic alliance between Intergraph and ETAP, to collaborate on their products’ integration and address the market for utilities and telecommunications. This fast-growing market is now beginning to support new sources of generation and production of energy. The announcement was made at DistribuTECH.

The ETAP Microgrid

The goal of the two companies is to provide a fully-integrated advanced distribution management system (ADMS) featuring Intergraph’s InService outage management system (OMS) including mobile workforce management and ETAP’s supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system and distribution management system (DMS). A single user interface integrating these different applications will provide electric distribution operators with real-time situational intelligence for improved network reliability and resilience. The collaboration also includes the integration of ETAP’s engineering planning tools with Intergraph’s G/Technology® geographic information systems (GIS).

The market is definitely changing and driving a new perspective on energy generation and production. In addition, retail markets and the need to support different behavior on the customer side, are contributing factors, where customers can be enabled to take advantage of different pricing structures of energy.

“The grid itself has been under stress for some time,” said Gilles. “Some of the workforce is retiring, creating difficulties for utilities to manage their grids. With resources, there are new solutions and tools needed to enable these changes in the energy sector and basically supporting the Smart Grid management. Intergraph has been involved in Smart Grid management for some time, combining outage management, SCADA and distribution management solutions.”

Gilles said that the whole concept of Smart Grid is bigger than the operations side. It also encompasses the back end asset management and the work management of the assets side of the grid.

“Our customers are now implementing solar panels and different energy sources, changing the pattern of the electricity flow in the grid,” said Gilles. “Electrical is also changing the behavior of consumption and production in the grid, and changing the way the grid is being used. Therefore a new approach in designing the grid, as well as operating it, is needed.”

Intergraph has been looking addressing both sides of the utility dilemma, including the design and analytics of the grid before it’s put into place. Because of the new behavior of the grid, one has to consider optimal placement of capacitors, optimal placement of switches, doing relay coordinations, accounting for reverse negative flows in the grid, and the new tools in the GIS environment that are required to support these processes that the grid operator is facing in today’s world. Some of these tools are needed also when you are considering extension of the grid. New divisions in some of the suburbs or commercial centers, are presenting new behavior such as rooftop solar panels and wind farms. While the grid operator is actually doing asset management and work management, he has to start considering more design criteria and analysis for the new configuration of the grid to address all these new constraints.

G-Technology is the GIS solution that Intergraph employs for this industry. The partnership with ETAP, a company specializing in network analysis, will provide tools that enable forecasts. For example, their tools will enable analysis of the distribution grids, provide tools for siting, cables, overhead lines, designing relay coordinations, settings of relays under the new operating commissions, analysis tools – analyzing the load of the distribution – distribution load flow tools, analysis tools for placing optimal capacitors to make the voltage profile in the distribution grid which is dramatically affected by the construction of solar energy or wind energy whether private or commercial or even by big providers. These capabilities will be added to G-Technology in the work asset management environment of the utility via the alliance with ETAP.

On the operational side, there is the introduction of automation in the distributing grid and the need for the solution SCADA provider’s control and acquisition solutions. In addition the introduction of smart meters in the grid, make the distribution grid more observable where before it was totally unobservable.

“The distribution grid was for many years operated from a design perspective mostly and with very little operational visibility of what is happening in the distribution grid,” said Gilles. “It has been done in a very overly conservative way but also because the consumption was quite traditional and fairly well predictable. But with the introduction of solar, wind and other sources, one sees now the behavior of consumption and production changing dramatically and therefore the old rules do not apply anymore. One needs more visibility into the way the grid is being operated to make sure service is provided at the same level of quality, but also to support new ways in which the grid is being used.”

In order to address a lot of these properties of the grid, Intergraph has had solutions to combine distribution, SCADA, office management and distribution management systems. The distribution SCADA is required to support the information of the distribution network, the office management supporting the management of offices during natural events like snow and hurricanes. It also manages unplanned outages, and coordinates planned outages with customers when those condition have to be done for major repair or maintenance in the distribution grid.

The alliance with ETAP will provide substantial added value to electric utility customers, primarily in the areas of integrated advanced distribution management including mobile workforce management, geospatial asset data management and integrated smart grid design and analysis, according to company materials. The alliance’s integrated solution also supports different operational configurations of Advanced DMS, some of which are market specific, and provides options to integrate parts of an end-to-end solution, depending upon customer need, such as the combination of outage and distribution management systems (OMS/DMS). In addition, the offering will provide flexible and evolving solutions enabling electric utility customers to integrate changes to grid operation and management with the increased deployment of intelligent devices, smart meters, distributed energy resources and microgrids.

Indirectly, smartmeters provide a lot of advantages to the grid, and to outage management. Smartmeters inform outage management directly and indirectly of any disruption of services to customers. There is loss of services somewhere in the network, but also in specific locations. This enables the utility to respond faster and in less time than in previous times when customers had to call.

Outage management is also coordinating the crews for the workforce out in the field, supporting the operations and maintenance of the grid, as crews are used to restore services.

“Sometimes some problems in the grid are not easily identifiable,” said Gilles. “They may be in multiple locations. Using smart meters, and interaction between smart meters and outage management solutions, one can find out quickly whether or not services have been fully restored. One problem may be hiding another one. With the help of smart meters and outage management we can identify the condition and crews can act and be dispatched to the right location at the right time.”

The Solutions Management System optimizes the normal operations of the grid when there is no problem. If you would like to optimize the operation of the grid, by balancing loads and feeders and take preventive actions against outages of the future, these tools are integrated. Some restoring services can be partially automated with the integration of mobile workforce management.

To provide better services to customers, Intergraph’s InService is integrated with GIS capabilities, and provides complete geospatial visual interaction and complete dispatch of crews, all packaged into one solution. It will integrate Distribution SCADA and distribution management solutions with partner ETAP.

“All the network analysis capabilities are actually considered integrated into the G-Technology solution for utility and into ETAP on the operational side,” said Gilles. “ETAP is bringing these together with our outage management solution and service to provide a complete offering of advanced distribution management system to our customers. The whole scope of our partnership with ETAP includes G-Technology and InService Solutions, Distribution SCADA and Distribution Management Solutions — from Work Asset Management all the way through the operation of the Smart Grid.”

The partnership will also bring integration. “There is still a gap between the model that work asset management is building with presenting the assets vs. the model of the electrical grid that is needed by the operational environment,” Gilles said.

“The objective is the integration the utility calls for and a data model source that is going to be unique in the enterprise. G-Technology is the best tool to do that because it is more than a GIS. It also provides network management tools that provide the guarantee of a strong connectivity and strong model on the electrical grid that is much more compatible with the operational environment. “

Intergraph is working with ETAP developing add-ons to that integration between work asset management modeling and the operational modeling of the grid, so the compatibility between the back end and the operationals can be guaranteed.

“One thing is to be emphasized is that the Smart Grid concept and the integration of G-Technology and Inservice Outage Management is vital to the water and gas utilities,” said Gilles. “On the telecommunications side, the operational side is very different, so there we are only providing G-Technology with our G-Fiber product extension to deployment.”

The Smart Grid and utility world is still growing and has a way to go as solar and wind power become more a part of the distribution network. The volume of percentage of these distributed energy sources is growing and utilities have to respond quickly. Considering all the aspects of new energy sources, product and consumption and demand response programs, outage management, etc. there is a significant impact on the design phase of the utility now which is totally new for most utilities to consider.

]]>https://www10.giscafe.com/blogs/gissusan/2015/02/27/intergraph-and-etap-form-strategic-alliance-to-benefit-utilities-customers/feed/03865Conform for real time 3D visualizationhttps://www10.giscafe.com/blogs/gissusan/2014/01/10/conform-for-real-time-3d-visualization/
https://www10.giscafe.com/blogs/gissusan/2014/01/10/conform-for-real-time-3d-visualization/#respondFri, 10 Jan 2014 21:21:10 +0000http://www10.giscafe.com/blogs/gissusan/?p=3059Andrew Tosh, founder of GameSim of Orlando, a 3D visualization and GIS applications used in the gaming and military simulation industries, talked about the plans to expand their product Conform into the GIS market. GameSim is looking at 30% growth (2013). Tosh started the company in 2008 and now they have 33 employess. They will do revenue at $3.7 million this year.

Conform is a product launched early in January 2013, which they had been using internally at GameSim.

The primary market targets for GameSim are gaming, the military simulation industry (very large in Orlando), and GIS. Tosh said that with military simulation they take raw GIS data to get it into the military simulator to make virtual environments.

“The gaming industry rely more on artists, they don’t need realistic environments,” noted Tosh. “Also the gaming industry is dealing with much smaller environments, so it’s not realistic for military simulation to generate all of the environments like they need to deal with big environments such as countries.”

When asked if the taking of GIS platforms into other areas such as commercial and gaming could be considered a trend, Tosh replied: “It has that potential. Games and training systems need to generate larger, more realistic environments on tight budgets. They have been looking toward procedurally generated content to help offset the cost of developing those environments by hand. Tools, like Conform, that can assist in the process of rapidly creating fused environments from GIS source data, can help fill that gap.”

A new big program within the military simulation industry is a big customer of Conform. They have a long pipeline of getting raw GIS data and having to clean it up and running it through to a lot of pipelines to make a final environment and finally getting to see it in 3D. At that point they may see they have a building sitting on top of a road. Conform can load all that raw data from the start and immediately provide 3D representation, “so we focused on being able to have high performance in real time, so it can take in raw feature data, elevation data, satellite imagery, lidar, point clouds, view that altogether in real time, and provide a 3D visual, and can edit that content and see effects of edits. Conform allows you to see all problems right away.”

“We’ve commercialized Conform and are making it available to a larger GIS community,” said Tosh. He said that the military are users of GIS for training purposes, with their goal to put it into military simulators which is now called the modeling simulation industry.

Everyone who has GIS needs to fuse their content together. Tosh said that Conform is a good use case, as “we can see it exported into game engine formats. Those creating large open world environments take GIS data and export into game engines, and can get artists to tweak it to be visually pleasing. It’s a way they can automate the process.”

Conform will be shown this year at GEOINT 2014.

“We are looking at showing how Conform can integrate into other systems, for example, to show integration with traffic simulation systems,” said Tosh. “You could import feature data from a road network and plan some sort of event, such as a hurricane and see where traffic is going, make changes to data and see how that would change the flow of traffic, a way to show integration with third parties.”

Conform is complementary to other GIS products, such as Esri and Intergraph products, etc. It is a vital tool in toolbox for any time there is a need to do real time vizualization. Conform is offered right now at $350 license, including customization services. Software engs can use the SDK and make customizations themselves.

Key enhancements built within Intergraph Geospatial 2014 are as follows:

1) Big data management. Where IT meets business systems, Stojic says, there is a plethora of content and data being generated from multiple sensors and systems. “Customers have issues understanding where data is, how to get it to other people and ultimately to make use of it to their advantage.”

“For truly harnessing and getting the most out of big data across an organization, we provide ERDAS APOLLO to be the nexus, or the one central gateway, to all geospatial and business data in an organization. ERDAS APOLLO is an enterprise class cataloguing system that allows organizations to discover, index and understand where all their their data assets and holdings are. With this solution we address the issues such as when data is collected there is so much data people don’t know what data to use, where to get it, for what process and so forth.”

“ERDAS APOLLO can identify automatically and catalog where data is, and it allows people to discover and search against those data holdings and find them and lastly, being able to find them,” said Stojic. “You have to know where it is, to understand it so you can get, and deliver it through a number of different IT pipes depending on the bandwidth of the organization.”

ERDAS APOLLO can manage all spatial and non-spatial data types, and has now been enhanced to provide even more powerful workflows for business and feature data types within the organization.

2. Create Custom Analytics The second key enhancement is to be able to get data in a form that users are able to use it. Users need to use multi source content in order to ultimately execute the analytical process and communicate results of that process to the end user who may not have background in geospatial. Through modeling capabilities that use multiple datasets of raster, feature and point cloud data users can extract meaningful, actionable information, and even deliver these processes and information as a service. “We took parts of GeoMedia and its modeling environment and integrated those inside of ERDAS IMAGINE spatial modeling solution, ultimately combining and extending our analytical capabilities to support more than raster, point cloud and feature data alone, so customers can execute even more robust processes and deliver even more useful products to customers,” said Stoljic.

Within ERDAS IMAGINE, data analysts can create powerful spatial models, chaining operators, interactively modifying associated variables, and dynamically previewiing results of that process. Python Scripting allows users to customize and extend where necessary. “Building upon this powerful process creator, analysts can now work with point clouds and other new specialized operators within the ERDAS IMAGINE spatial modeler,” said Stojic. Analysts can now chain powerful operators like unsupervised classification, specialized brightness and contrast correction and image segmentation. Plus more memory has been made available for complex processing and execution. “And for developers, we’ve now made it possible to build your own operators using a powerful SDK,” added Stojic.

3. Mobility Being able to take information from the organization and go into the field, connecting workflows in the field with data holdings inside organizations is a big requirement. “We introduced several mobile apps that allow you to connect to enterprise servers, pull data from our servers, open source servers and other GIS servers, and do field work and push data back into the system so others can find and access it,” said Stojic.

Intergraph has modernized Intergraph Geospatial 2014 with 64-bit support, support for different cloud platforms, for different cloud platforms, consolidating technologies together.

Because data is so big, the challenge the organization has is getting the data to lightweight apps. “What we did with this release is extend our ECW compression technology to work on mobile devices,” said Stojic. “An example that we worked with for RWE in Germany was to take the entire country of Germany which constitutes more 30 terabytes of data and compressed it so it could be delivered over mobile devices through our new SDK. That’s what we talking about when addressing big data challenge. – mobile apps, web apps and desktop apps.”

Intergraph also has a product called Mobile Alert, a crowdsourcing app that operates on the cloud. “A local county or city has this app that its citizens download for free, and it allows its citizens to be remote sensors, take pictures, geotag and document what they see and ultimately share that information with the city council, that gets an itemized list of incidents.”

Intergraph® has launched Intergraph Geospatial 2014, a comprehensive portfolio of industry-leading technologies. Building upon the foundation introduced in 2013, this release provides enhanced analytical tools, mobile support and tremendous cost savings associated with managing big data.

With an ongoing focus on a fully united, modern and dynamic product portfolio, this powerful release synchronizes the technologies across all Intergraph product lines – broadening the reach and availability for fully integrated solutions for all users of geospatial information.

“As today’s organizations require the most dynamic geospatial solutions for driving enhanced decision-making, we are excited to share this release, introducing new mobility, analytics and big data management tools,” said Mladen Stojic, president, Hexagon Geospatial. “We are also continuing to develop creative and intuitive interfaces, smarter workflows and automated technologies that support the entire geospatial information lifecycle, transforming multi-source content into dynamic and actionable information.”